Hockey mom, mavericky, snow machines, and—how could we forget that other memorable phrase from the 2008 presidential campaign?—lipstick on a pig. Some new and not-so-new terms leapt onto the national stage during Gov. Sarah Palin‘s run for the...
car czar n.— «The loan program calls for the installation of a government official to monitor the money, and to keep track of whether GM, Chrysler and Ford—if Ford does need to tap into it—stay on track to restructure their business not...
flusher n.— «The Obama campaign’s New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real...
Does one take preventive or preventative measures? A caller in Ocean Beach, California, who just graduated from an exercise science program wants to know which of these terms describes what she’s been studying. This is part of a complete...
It's time again for a newsletter from A Way with Words, public radio's program about words, language, and how we use them. This past weekend we plundered the Australian National Dictionary, which is now available in full online, by sharing...
tweening n.— «When Disney’s artists created dancing mushrooms almost 70 years ago, they did so by drawing still pictures on dozens of celluloid pages, or “cels.” But, Lopez and his fellow students are learning to use a...